Insanity
by The-Queen-of-the-Pirates
Summary: Insanity is like a disease, it poisons the mind and takes over the body. No one is safe from it. It lurks within all, just waiting to get out. T for safety. SoMa if you take off your glasses, squint, and tilt your head to the side.


**Hello! So yeah, I don't really have anything to say right now. To those of you who are waiting for me to update The Ice of Souls, its almost ready, patience is a virtue. :3**

**I thought of this idea in school a couple days ago and I just had to write it before it clawed my brain out. I hope you enjoy.**

**Read and Review**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Soul Eater, why would I be writing fan fictions about it!?**

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Insanity is like a disease, it poisons the mind and takes over the body. No one is safe from it. It lurks within all, just waiting to get out.

It was a nice night, a pleasant breeze was blowing from the north and the sky was clear, billions of stars twinkling fireflies in the endless inky abyss. This was the bad part of town, the buildings were run down, litter paved the side walks and intimidating men leaned against walls, tattoos covering their visible and non-visible skin, staring down any lone person to absolute terror. This particular alleyway was alive with screams as yet another victim tried with all their desperate terror to escape, only to fail. It was funny, really. Each human tried so hard to get away, struggled so greatly for life, yet it was their desperate struggling that excited her to this level of viciousness. It invigorated her the way hunting invigorated a wolf pack. The more they fought, the closer to their destruction they came. Oh, the horrible, hilarious, irony.

She followed by the rooftops, hopping from place to place, flipping and rolling then pursuing again. Every once and awhile their meal would send a horror filled glance back at her, makeup-less eyes watching. High heels made the chase less interesting but nonetheless fun, her prey would sometimes stumble and scramble away from her on its hands and knees. It gave her an extreme bout of amusement that never failed to send her into a fit of giggles.

An angry whine from behind her prompted her to end the chase now, before they were interrupted. If they waited any longer their prey might get lucky and escape. "I'm hungry." Her partner lurked behind her, following at a more steady pace but still keeping up. He prefered to stay in the shadows, he was rather stoic and didn't talk much anymore, she often accused him of being "too guarded. It's boring!" but when he let himself lose the way she did, no one could match him in ferocity. He was the type of guy who didn't like having to wait for his next meal. He liked to eat when he was hungry and until he was full. But in their current situation, that didn't happen very often.

Running to the edge of the roof, she gathered her strength and leapt, twirling through the air and landing directly in the path of her victim. The shock of the landing wracked up her legs and spine, shooting fiery pain through her lower body. But it was worth it to hear her victim's scream. The prey turned to run in the opposite direction, only to come face to face with her partner whom was blocking off the only other route of escape their prey could have taken. It took two slow steps back, knocked by the sheer intensity of his listless gaze. This was nothing new. Her partner could scare off full-grown, muscle-bound criminals with those eyes of his. It was like he hypnotized them. Maybe her partner was secretly some sort of mythical snake.

She, the predator, as she liked to think of herself, giggled and drew a serrated dagger from its place on her hip. She didn't really need it, after all she had a much better weapon, her partner, but it was convenient. She advanced towards the dirty blonde-haired human which twirled around again, its back now to the brick wall behind it so it could keep one eye on each of them. Its green eyes were filled to the brim with delicious fear. It was terrified. Terrified of her, terrified of him, terrified of them.

She hobbled forward swaying back and forth, a wide grin plastered to her face, allowing her arms to swing freely with the momentum of her stride. Her boots cuffed against the ground in long scraping strides which echoed around the empty streets only growing louder rather than quiet.

"Did you really think you could get away?" She asked her prey sweetly. It thought it had a chance, they all did. But they were all wrong. She and her partner were going to have a meal tonight, and this scrawny little human was it. She was close enough now that she could see her prey trembling, it's breaths coming in ragged puffs of exhaustion. It's hands clutched shakily at the books it had refused to drop. It's soul shook. A sweet, innocent soul emitting waves of fear. A soul brimming with unused power. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed her partner lick his lips, drooling in anticipation. Neither of them had eaten for quite a few days, they were both starving beyond belief. This dead part of town had little flavorsome prey. It was like a crappy fast food restaurant. If she was a health inspector she would give it a D.

She couldn't wait any longer, or keep him waiting. The sweetness of anticipation was wearing off. In the end, she just wanted the power. She raised the dagger, moonlight glinted of the deadly sharp blade and reflected back onto her face lighting up her eyes in a maniacal way. Her prey gave what other humans would describe as "a blood curling scream," and what her partner would describe as an "appetizing" one. It would be the last sound the human ever made as she buried the dagger into the flesh of its stomach. She twisted the blade, feeling flesh give way and muscles tear. The human's eyes widened and her mouth worked around some meaningless syllables, opening and closing in a scream, yet no sound came out. Pain replaced the fear in its eyes and its soul gave a resounding lurch, then was still. Her prey crumbled to the ground without so much of a whimper of the agony its soul had showed. She ripped the blade from its embedded spot and plunged it a few more times into the victim's chest for good measure. Blood splattered her face and soaked her hands. The coppery smell of fresh death permeated the air around them. She lifted the knife to her mouth and drug her tongue across it, cleaning her blade of the salty, scarlet liquid.

She raised her eyes as a soft blue light enveloped them. From the body of their victim a small orb floated lazily into the air. It bobbed over ripples of wind like a small ship on a calm sea. The soul. Her partner wasted no time in latching onto the soul with a frequented ease not stopping to marvel at its beauty like most people would. Both of them had seen enough souls to beat out a soldier of war. The appearance didn't matter, just the energy it provided them with. He raised it above him, holding it by the small tail of energy between his thumb and forefinger. He tilted his head back and opened his mouth, letting his tongue lawl out, so he could swallow the small, but power filled soul. She covered her mouth as she suppressed a giggle. He always looked hilarious when he did this, swallowed a soul. But she would never tell him that, or make fun of him for it. It would upset him, and he was the only person in the world she didn't want to anger.

"Stop!" The yell rushed over them in a sudden wave shattering the earlier silence. Her partner drew the soul away from his teeth and slurped up a bit of saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth, glaring lazily past her at the person who had interrupted his meal. She twisted her head around following his gaze to a person standing on a roof a ways away, the source of the voice. A lanky thing wrapped in a black suit and pale skin, hardly seeming good enough to make an appetizer, much less a meal. She rolled her tongue over her lips, licking up the last drops of blood.

Then it hit her, his soul's wavelength.

It was large and radiated a power greater than any mere human, meister, or weapon. Shinigami. She grinned. A shinigami would be difficult to defeat, but if they consumed his soul, the power would fill them for weeks. There was someone else there too. An energetic and angry soul, standing just behind the death god. His electric blue hair stood out like a tracking beacon against the dark night sky. Both held weapons as well, powerful weapons. This seemed like fun.

"Don't eat that soul." The reaper spoke slowly, punctuating each word as if he needed them to understand. They both seemed vaguely familiar, like a dream she couldn't quite remember. Images of them laughing and smiling flashed for an instant through her brain.

"And who's going to stop us?" She leaned against the brick wall to keep her balance and giggled. "You?" Her partners face split into a wide shark-toothed grin, the one that brought a crazed glint to his apathetic eyes. She loved this rare occurrence, when he would show some of the madness that ruled his mind on the outside. He once again raised the soul and dropped it into his waiting maw, habitually chewed it a few times, then swallowed. He let out a satisfied huff of air as power flooded through every vein in his body like electricity and, through extension of their bonded souls, poured into her. The eccentric one gave a cry of outrage.

"Maka!" The shinigami called.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." She pushed herself of the wall and linked hands with her partner, she encircled his arm with hers and leaned her head on his shoulder as they waited for the attack that always came and always ended with another soul for them to consume. As expected the blue-haired one took the bait and leapt from his place on the roof, ignoring the warning shouts of his companion. His grip on his weapon was shaking with rage as he glared acid at them.

"Aw," Maka drawled, "we made him angry." He growled deep in his throat.

"Don't lie to me. You're not Maka, you're some sort of demon. The real Maka's in there, somewhere." He scrutinized her intently, black eyes roaming her face and figure as if he expected her to suddenly grow fangs and bat wings.

"I'm just as real as you or him." She pointed past him to the shinigami still on the roof. "Just because you won't admit it, doesn't make it any less true. This is who I am, and I am Maka."

"No!" Blue hair shook his head vigorously. He raise his weapon, a chain scythe, above his head. "You're not the Maka I knew." He swung the chain scythe forward towards Maka at an alarming rate. Maka blinked and flicked her arm into its path, the chain snagged onto her wrist and encircled it, stopping only inches from her face. She dipped her head as her partner's hand turned from flesh to metal in her own, leaving a smooth scythe resting in her palm. She let the head slip to the ground and rested her weight on the staff. A steady stream of blood slid down her arm from where the chain dug into her skin, it dripped to the concrete at a steady pace. Her eyes followed each drip with an intrigued stare.

"Black..." she murmured. She threw her head back up and every trace of sanity was gone from her wild eyes. "You're an idiot!" Laughing, she lifted her foot and stomped down on the chain of his weapon, yanking him forward so that he was staring directly into her senseless eyes. "I'd hate to be friends with you." She swirled around using his shock as an opportunity to slam a kick into the side of his head.

Blue seemed to be a better fighter than the others who had been sent before. A kick that would have sent a lesser meister tumbling into the opposite wall merely knocked him side, stumbling slightly, but his grip on his weapon diminished and Maka tore it from his hands. She lifted the blade to eye level and stared at it, still wrapped around her wrist, swinging freely. Light glinted on it while it swung. As it passed a reflection shone, but instead of her own face she saw another. A girl with long black hair stared at her with fear and... something else. Concern? Maka grinned. By now, Blue had regained his composure and rushed her again.

"Tsubaki!" Maka easily side stepped him, dangling his weapon tauntingly just outside of his reach. He was agile and quick, but his rage dulled his skills allowing her to break through his defenses and knock him onto his back with a swipe at his feet and a well aimed shove. He stumbled, but this time was unable to recapture his balance, he toppled over with a thud and a whoosh of air leaving his lungs. She hovered her scythe over him, resting the very tip of the blade on his sternum.

"With the way you're fighting now, we'll eat your soul in no time!" He knocked her arm to the side and jumped up, panting roughly to try and catch his breath. He darted to the right throwing a punch at her jaw line, he was fast, but not fast enough. Maka raised her scythe to intercept his blow on the hard metal, she braced it with one hand on the blade and shoved him back. She swung her weapon at him and he ducked back. The blade just barely cleared his skin, slicing of a few strands of hair as it passed over him. She used the momentum to spin around and slam the back of the blade into his ribs. A satisfying crack of bone resounded through the empty air and Blue stumbled back holding his ribs and grunting in pain.

"Black star!" An echoed voice shouted from beside her, yet seemed from far away. Maka pulled the weapon back into her view.

"Oh, so it speaks!" Maka giggled out in glee. "My weapon talks too! Not much, but, he does." Maka tilted her head to the side and directed her attention to the scythe in her hand. "Soul? Why don't you talk more?" Only proving the statment to be true, her partner was silent, she shrugged. Suddenly she blinked and raised her eyebrows. "Black star? But you have blue hair. You should be Blue star. That'd be better." 'Blue star' clenched his fists his eyes planted on the ground at their feet. He took a deep breath, something that didn't escape Maka's notice. "What's wrong? Tired already?" The boy didn't answer. For a moment, Maka thought he was giving up, until his hand lashed out and caught her wrist, the one holding his weapon. His eyes slowly raised to meet hers once more, no longer a cold onyx, his eyes had taken on a pale green hue, set ablaze by the burning rage he was feeling.

"Hands. Off. My. Weapon." Every emotion he felt, every thought in his head was displayed in his motions at that moment. The way his grip tightened on her wrist, the way he ducked beneath her defenses and pressed his palm firmly against her stomach. These weren't the people he'd once known, and he realized he may never see those friends true faces again. All this passed through her as he forced his soul's wavelength into her body. His soul didn't match hers but her perception soaked up the feelings embedded within it.

His wavelength clashed with hers and ripped through it to continue its path through her. Pain wracked through her insides like fire and she stumbled backwards dropping his weapon and coughing up globs of coal colored blood. She took a ragged breath and spit a clot of blood from her mouth onto the road. Maka hissed out a laugh despite the horrible pain coursing through her. Her heart flipped within her chest, this was the first time she'd felt pain in so long. Fear? No, she'd never feel fear again. She only felt an instinct from survival flooding her senses. Survive and live, survive and eat. "Is that the best you can do?"

"No," Black Star replied retrieving his fallen weapon, "but I'm not the only person in this fight... Though I am the best. I'm nice, so I'm letting him take some of the glory." Eyes widening, Maka's vision swung to where she had last seen the shinigami on the roof. He was gone. She spun around, franticly looking anywhere for a glimpse of the death god.

"Ready to fire in three-" Maka whirled to find the reaper sitting on a roof opposite them. His guns had transformed, tripling in size and enveloping his arms. "Two-" Two orbs of crackling energy formed on either barrel, both aiming at her and her partner. Shit. "One-" Maka jumped back trying to dodge but she knew she wasn't going to make it in time. She heard the shot and an explosion but felt no pain. Confused she looked up and saw a collapsed building to her left, the shinigami's arms were thrown to the side and his eyes were screwed shut, jaw clenched, head hung. Maka grinned.

"Thanks for entertaining me. But~ now that dinner's over- I think we'll be going. I hope you don't mind cleaning up after us." With that Maka jumped, clutched onto the edge of a roof and pulled herself and her partner on top of it.

She hesitated and turned around, a maniacal grin splitting her cheeks. "Come hurt me some more another time." As an afterthought she stuck her tongue out in a childish taunt. Then they were gone, vanished into the very shadows they came from.

The shinigami jumped from his place on the roof to the ground. Black Star stomped over to him and balled his fist into the front of his friends shirt, lifting him practically of his feet. "What the hell was that!" He screamed at the downtrodden reaper who was avoiding his gaze at all costs.

"I couldn't do it. I couldn't... hurt them." In unnatural flashes of light, three women joined them in the wreckage, their partners. Black Star dropped his fist as his weapon placed a light fluttering touch to his shoulder.

"Are they ever going to come back to us?" She queried softly. Death the Kid shook his head.

"They've been harvesting human and kishen souls alike for over a year now. They've devoured every weapon and meister pair father has sent their way. I fear, with both of them gone like this, they will never return to how they were." One of Kid's weapons stepped up, a tall brunette, brimming with a big sisterly kindness and a natural beauty hidden beneath layers of makeup.

"They always had each other to pull them back when they lost control like this. With both of them gone, they have no one to pull them out, no rope to grab onto. None of us have that same sort of bond with them..."

"What do we do?" Black Star ran a hand over his face as he asked this question, looking more tired than he ever had in his whole life. He wrapped an arm around his middle, holding his injured ribs. His weapon hovered over him in concern, taking one of his arms and wrapping it around her shoulders and placing her other hand on top of his so she could take some of his weight. Their eyes locked for a moment and she offered a small smile, though it didn't quite touch her eyes, a smile he couldn't return.

"We treat them like we would any other weapon and meister running the risk of becoming a kishin." Kid straightened his back, using his sophisticated, emotionless voice to address them. But they all knew him well enough to see directly through his facade. He was reverting to an emotionless state to keep himself from being torn apart, he was sheilding his heart. They all were. "The next time we meet them, I won't give in to weakness."

Five people lost two close friends that night, and all the hope they had been carrying died within them, where it would fester and rot, slowly poisoning them until they were nothing but husks of their former selves. There could be an antidote, but only time would tell.

Maka walked with her shoulders hunched and her feet barely clearing the floor. She dragged Soul behind her, the metal making a low grating noise as it slid across the concrete. She halted abruptly and looked up at the building that had become their hiding place, their home. The old city jail. Her partner transformed behind her, keeping his hand interlocked with hers and led her into the building.

The walls were an age old faded grey color with stains here and crumbled paint there. The air was stale, and rancid water dripped from rusted pipes all throughout the place, but it was home. Maka spit out another clot of saliva mixed with blood. She followed Soul as he led her to their "bedroom," a jail cell made due with a ripped quilt and some filthy pillows. They didn't sleep apart anymore. They couldn't do it. They'd tried in the beginning and always ended up right back in each others arms. Eventually they just gave in. They were all each other had left anymore. They were each others rocks. The only anchors that kept them from completely slipping away. And being apart wounded them more than the faces of all the people they'd killed. Women and children. Good and evil alike. It mattered naught. Her white-haired partner sat her down and walked away, presumably to get her some water, like he always did. Maka used her fist to wipe the blood, both hers and the victims, from her chin. She placed her hands flat on the ground and stared up at the ceiling.

"A demon, huh?"

Soul returned and handed her a small tin cup filled with clean water, she drained it in a single, long draught and placed it to the side as Soul sat down next to her wrapping an arm protectively around her shoulders.

"They got close today didn't they Soul?" He only grunted in agreement. "Those people... We knew them didn't we, Soul." Her partner didn't answer, just stared somewhere ahead of him and let her carry the conversation. "When that blue haired one hit me with his soul's wavelength, I could feel remorse, sadness, guilt for not being able to protect two close friends. Those friends were us... Weren't they." Again her partner was silent. "Soul..." He turned to look at her. She was using a different tone of voice, a tone she hadn't used for a long, long time. She was being completely serious, staring at him with an intensity in her jade eyes he hadn't seen for an entire year. Twelve months. 365 days. A long time. A slow smile crept onto her lips and she began to chuckle. She chuckled, which turned into giggling, which escalated into a full on fit of laughter. Her partner waited patiently until her fit had subsided and she turned to look at him. Salty tears flowed down her cheeks from her gleeful eyes. "They're going to kill us, aren't they, Soul?" He stared at her for a long moment then burst into a bout of laughter identical to hers, tightening his grip around her shoulders.

"Yeah. I think they are." Maka dropped her forehead onto his shoulder and he rested his cheek on top of her head. And they laughed. They laughed and they laughed, falling back onto their makeshift bed, they laughed into the night. Their laughter mingled and flowed through the air, hiding within it the few drops of pain the last shreds of humanity inside them were able to squeeze out from behind the veil of insanity. Only a few drops, but in those few drops, an ocean of hurt and sadness flowed.

And somewhere, deep within a consciousness, in that dark place where the mind and the soul overlap. A little red demon sat, a psychotic grin on his face, plotting to devour the last shreds causing those drops of fear and pain. That little red imp sat, gloating over his massive victory.

Insanity is like a disease, it poisons the mind and takes over the body. No one is safe from it. It lurks within all, just waiting to get out.


End file.
